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This is one reason I'm not crazy about the over-use of AJAX we're seeing everywhere. It looks cool but often breaks the normal flow of navigation in ways that aren't intuitive. I'll stick with CGI, thanks.

It discusses all things related to the Pharmaceutical industry, but it's written from the perspective of a medicinal chemist and there are often entries discussing exactly this issue, with comments from lots of people in the field, e.g.:

Thanks for the suggestions, but those all appear to be rings that LOOK geeky. Are there no rings that actually serve a purpose? If I'm going to wear a little gadget on my finger for 20+ years it would be nice if it actually did something. I'm thinking data storage, magnetism, lasers, etc. Anything?

RoadNotTaken (1702106) writes "Dear Slashdot,I finally bit the bullet and decided to get married. My fiance and I are looking for wedding rings and I find myself disappointed that they have so-few features. Are there any geeky rings out there that can do something useful? I'm thinking USB or RFID but am open to suggestions. There has to be SOMETHING good you can do with a chunk of metal on your finger..."

CuteSteveJobs (1343851) writes "Australian iPad buyers have been forced to buy all manner of unnecessary add-ons including screen protectors, docking stations, covers, chargers and extended warranties due to a reported Official Apple policy. Shoppers reported sales assistants said it was “company policy” or “Apple policy” to sell the devices only with accessories, or not at all. A store manager for Authorised Apple Reseller JB Hi-Fi said it was “a bad policy but it was Apple’s policy and they couldn’t sell one without it”. Other customers were told they must "buy a Telstra SIM because the iPad is locked to Telstra", even though it wasn't. The Australian Consumer and Competition Commission and Consumer affairs are investigating the complaints.

What's the point of having Authorized Apple Resellers in this environment? Is it Official Apple policy? Don't look for any help from Apple; An Apple spokeswoman said "she could not comment on company policy", but did offer "consumers could buy iPads directly from us" without any add-ons."Link to Original Source

theodp (442580) writes "While conceding 'it is clear there should have been greater transparency about the collection of this [WiFi] data,' Google asserted 'we have provided public descriptions of our location-based services' in their written response to Congress (pdf) about whether the public had been adequately informed of its data collection efforts. To prove their point, Google's how-many-times-do-we-have-to-tell-you answer included a link to a blog entry on My Location on the desktop, an odd choice considering that Google is still less-than-clear about exactly what's being captured by the service ('When My Location is active, Toolbar will automatically send local network information (including, but not limited to, visible WiFi access points)'). Congress may want to check out another as-yet unpublished Google patent filing — the 'inventors' include a Google Latitude Product Manager — that discusses the use of a 'mobile device data collection module' to 'collect data on a set of mobile devices which are using [a] wireless base station', including GPS location information, time information, and 'application specific data, such as, map requests, etc.' And while Google didn't link to it, Congress might also want to evaluate the transparency of this cute Google video, which assured the public of Street View's privacy safeguards, but gave no hint of the controversial WiFi collection."

tbitiss (666) writes "A new open source project dubbed Guacamole allows users to access a desktop remotely through a Web browser, potentially streamlining the requirements for client support and administration. Guacamole is a HTML5 and JavaScript (Ajax) VNC viewer, which makes use of a VNC-to-XML proxy server written in Java. According to its developers, Guacamole is almost as responsive as native VNC and should work in any browser supporting the HTML5 canvas tag. Supporting 10 Linux desktops in 10 browser tabs? I like the sound of that."Link to Original Source

OK well how about a refrigerator that can access recipe sites via the web. Or your car's navigation system that can get your routes from your desktop via the web. These things are coming. Would you argue that all of these devices should allow the user to have full access to the entire web and all the problems that may come with it? Do you want to get a virus on your refrigerator?

Now, I think whether or not a phone is such an appliance is an open and interesting question. But surely you think there are SOME devices that should be closed and only have access to certain protocols/sites.

Steve Jobs is in favor of closing off one device that has numerous other important functions, not the whole internet....

He's implying that no-one should access the web with a closed OS under any circumstance. That seems ridiculous. There are many items that may benefit from web-access that don't need full/open access. I think right now people are arguing over whether or not a phone is such an item. Personally, I don't want root access to my phone. I'm happy to give up full freedom on my phone in exchange for it NEVER failing to do what I need it to do.

Yeah the keyboard might be the weakest link. I don't find range to be an issue, but there is a slight latency and I get a lot more typos for some reason. It would be a pain to use for extensive coding or word-processing, but for e-mail/chat/etc it's fine.

I use an Adesso SlimTouch which has a built-in touchpad, which was the killer-feature I was looking for. Overall I'm very happy with it. It's a lot like using a laptop because I can sit-back on the couch and use it without needing a separate mouse (which requires a table/desk of some sort).

I hooked up my Mac mini to my 42" flatscreen and this has basically replaced cable and a normal computer for me. I sit on my couch with my wireless keyboard and either surf the web, skype, or watch Netflix/Hulu/etc.

Interestingly everyone that comes over and sees the set-up wants it for themselves. It still takes *a little* geek savvy to install a system like this, but not for long. Once people get more exposure to this sort of thing they'll never look back.

It's much more enjoyable to watch TV-shows via Hulu/Netflix than it is once a week with long adverts, anyway.